Kaikoura
Well the night was a little bouncy...and I mean only a little. But the morning dawned absolutely perfectly. Apparently while some of us were still sleeping we had a sperm whale nearby, and then it was anchoring in off South Bay, Kaikoura. A gentle swell, clear blue skies and almost no wind meant a perfect start to the day.
The first Xplorer trip headed ashore with a few to venture around town and the first of the intrepid Albatross watchers. Kaikoura is THE best place in the World for getting up close and personal with albatross and today was no different. We boarded our small craft with Kaikoura local and skipper premier Gary and headed out... They do things a little differently here, with the boat on the back of a trailer as we boarded and then had the boat reversed into the water. The jet-engine was fired up and we backed off the trailer into the water! Within about 10 minutes of leaving the harbour, we had views of our first albatross amidst rather large swell, but otherwise stunning conditions. Pulling alongside a motoring fishing boat we were amongst the birds that were following the vessel – with at least 10 wandering albatross, a single Buller’s albatross (probably the Northern subspecies), Salvin’s and white-capped albatross, and later a single Northern Royal albatross – five species of albatross, and most of them up close! Once we stopped and put the chum out for them we literally had albatross within arms length. It was a chance to really see how big these giants are with their wingspans exceeding 3m. There were also a lot of Cape petrels squabbling over the food, but keeping out of the way of the bigger birds, and lots of white-chinned petrels, a few Westland petrels, and several species of shearwater. Everything was wheeling around the boat, and with perfect light for photography!
We spent about 2 hours with the birds, adjusting the angle of the boat to maximize light direction etc., and with just a light breeze everyone coped with the swell very well. The birds were still wheeling around the boat, often within touching distance, but we decided to head inshore to check out a few other sites. So we said good-bye to the albatrosses and headed towards Barney’s Rock. Close to the rock we could see the dolphin swimming boats with their swimmers in the water, so we avoided them, but got great views of spotted shags, red-billed gulls, and New Zealand fur seals all over the rocks. A couple of little blue penguins were also around and we got relatively close to them, and then a small number of dusky dolphins decided to breakaway from the swimmers and come around us. So we had stunning views of them as well!
We then headed along the coast towards home, but with streams of spotted shags coming past we decided to follow them, and found a big feeding flock of them just off the beach. We spent a little time with them, and then found a flock of the local endemic Hutton’s shearwater feeding with some white-fronted terns. Perfect! Excellent photo opportunities of them both, before heading back to the harbour. What a morning! And this was only the birders! The whalers had headed out on two whale watch boats to seek out sperm whales which are found throughout the year at this location. Apparently excellent views of multiple animals were had, with lovely whale tale pics against the scenic backdrop of the Seaward Kaikoura mountains were able to be taken.
Then back to the ship for lunch, with another group heading out on an early afternoon Albatross trip. It seems Gary was able to come up with a similarly excellent array of seabirds for this trip, including an additional Campbell albatross. This species looks like a black-browed albatross, but has a unique honey-coloured eye, instead of the black eye, and breeds only on Campbell Island in the New Zealand subantarctic. As this trip was occurring, Peter Carey led a walk across the Kaikoura Peninsula clifftop walkway, taking in the scenic beauty of the area, and seeing a large seal colony on the northern tip of the peninsula.
A third albatross tour took place in the late afternoon, and with albatrosses having gorged all day behind fishing vessels and the albatross tour boat, there were less than in the earlier trips. However, we did manage to find a few birds, including more Northern Royal albatrosses, a large raft of Buller’s shearwaters, and then probably the same Campbell albatross. Inshore we had great views of more dusky dolphins, before heading back to shore, and back to the ship. A lumpy sea, but no wind, marked the departure from Kaikoura.
